As a brand strategist, I can admit: strategists are just the worst sometimes.
We mean well. We try to use our skills for good – to inform or educate, empower or protect. We have tools and talents for digging into research, finding key insights, explaining complex topics, and making critical decisions. But often we use too many words and toss around too many acronyms. We assume people recall that one thing we covered in that workshop last month. We say to focus less on day-to-day minutia (i.e. their job) and more on the Big Picture (i.e. our work). We take too long to get to the point.
Yet it’s hard to implement strategy if key players don’t get (or can’t remember) what you’re saying. According to Gallup, only 41% of employees say they understand what their company stands for and what makes their brands different. Which kind of makes all that strategy work moot.
So if you’re responsible for the brand at your organization, how do you ensure all that hard work that went into strategy pays off? Take a moment to make it more accessible, to bridge the gap between good ideas and successful outcomes.
Making your brand strategy accessible means making it approachable and actionable to the very people you need to get it: executives, sales and customer service teams, marketing and content creators, stakeholders, partners, everyday employees, and others. Brand strategy is accessible when it’s easy to understand, remember, and act upon. More than anything, accessible means easy. After a complex strategy development process, we need to clean up those cumbersome presentation decks and consider methods of delivery. Only then can we communicate strategy simply enough that the right people can understand and use it.
(What I’m not talking about right now is making content more accessible to people with disabilities, an important but different issue. The Web Accessibility Initiative offers resources to make thoughtful improvements for a huge impact.)
So how do you get your brand strategy into the hearts and minds of your front-line users and other priority audiences more smoothly?
Five ways to make your strategy more accessible
1.Keep it simple
People have short attention spans, so messages must come through clearly and quickly. And we know they act on emotion, so get to the heart of what makes your brand different and meaningful, then back it up with rational support.
This begins with minimizing the number of elements in your strategy. For example, I’ve worked with companies who have a brand purpose, mission, vision, values, and core beliefs. Those concepts may have some nuanced differences, but brand laymen generally get overwhelmed and confused. By paring down to just two or three elements – and using more straightforward terms like “what drives us” and “what we stand for” – people are more likely to remember them. (I once sat through a panel discussion where brand experts debated the difference between a purpose and mission. Spoiler: it’s semantics.)
Then, once you’re communicating your brand strategy, don’t bury the lede. Get right to the point by using fewer words and more visuals. Remove steps in your processes and stories. And make your materials browsable and searchable, so people are far more likely to reference them a second time.
2. Educate through examples
I’ve been teaching brand strategy and advertising campaigns to college students for the past nine years, and working with clients for the past 20. One thing I’ve learned is that a concept doesn’t really click until a person sees an example.
For instance, think of all those guidelines that communicate brand values or tone of voice in broad, generic terms: “Be authoritative, yet approachable. Be motivational and succinct, and occasionally witty. Above all, be authentic.” Sure. But what does that look like? What is motivational to one person may not be another. And don’t get me started on the endless interpretations of witty.
That’s where just one or two examples can bring it home: written samples for content creators, case studies for sales reps, etc. Or even better, tell them which employee at the company best exemplifies this trait, with a story about why. And this applies at all disciplines and levels of your organization. Your veteran COO gets just as much value from examples as your junior HR associate. They just need examples relevant to their role – “how this comes to life” looks different for them, but they crave those specifics all the same.
3. Ditch the jargon
We strategists love our lingo. It comes in handy as communication shortcuts during the strategic development process, or when conversing with other strategists. But when talking with civilians, it’s time to speak human.
I have something I call the Utilize Principle: “never say utilize when use will do.” It involves replacing longer or technical terms with shorter conversational options whenever possible. (I also avoid optimize, innovative, efficiencies, leverage, mission-critical and, of course, synergy.) It takes time, but it’s worth it. When you need to discuss technical concepts, quickly define industry terms upfront. People are good with that; they don’t mind a refresh or learning new things, they just need a moment to translate. (Strategists tend to underestimate our audience’s intelligence and overestimate their attention span.)
In one brand activation, I was on a team that shared Voice of the Customer research with the sales team. But we didn’t say “Voice of the Customer” (or worse, VoC). We just explain, “Your customers told us they don’t care about the details of your advanced manufacturing process…they care that it makes your product last longer, which is why they pay more for it.” Message received.
4. Make training hands-on
It’s common for new brand initiatives (or rebrands) to launch with considerable internal fanfare, from company events to bold announcements and branded swag. It can be exciting and fun. And it can evaporate immediately.
For strategy to land, key employees need to see how it applies to their own day-to-day. Whether their job involves pitching customers or managing employees, they have the same question, “what do I do with this?” That’s when you let them try it out for themselves.
Say you’re training content creators on a new brand strategy. You can run a workshop with breakout sessions where they apply it to active assignments, like blog posts or marketing copy they’re currently working on. Offer prompts and let them play in quick bursts – to get a feel for how it really works, and surface questions about what’s still clunky or unclear.
Again, this is helpful regardless of seniority or status. For your C-Suite, a “hands-on experience” may involve more planning or problem-solving than training. But the spirit is the same: use that moment to get things done. Experience is the best teacher, and it’s never too early to stress test a strategy.
5. Use channels of least resistance
Sometimes “accessibility” really does just mean more convenient access. The most common forms I’ve seen to share brand strategy with an internal audience include the PDF, the printout, the training, and the party. The first two are easily overlooked or lost, the latter easily missed or quickly forgotten.
One of my favorite delivery tools is the brand blueprint: a single document that packages up strategy in a concise and actionable way. Brand blueprints come in many forms, typically with a high-level and inspirational front end (which people read once and appreciate good design), and a detailed, functional back end (which some people refer back to often and appreciate easy navigation). Bonus points if it lives on a centralized digital hub your people already use.
Another great channel is the video library. People have always enjoyed video for casual education and how-tos (thanks, YouTube), and now increasingly turn to video for professional training and higher education. And why not? It’s more convenient to complete a series of 5-minute videos plus a hands-on exercise, than a two-hour, real-time training that fits everyone’s schedule. Video is also far more scalable – easy to expand content, and no problem onboarding that new employee who started just after training day.
Accessible strategy is actionable strategy
Brand strategy is only as effective as the people who execute it. With a clear understanding of your mission and messaging, values and voice, almost anyone at your organization can do their job better and easier.
Will your people get your new brand strategy? That depends not just on what it is, but how you give it to them. A little accessibility goes a long way.
Cover image source: Ivan Lopatin